Mossfield cheese: a(nother) good news organic story

�I sold more cheese this January than last January�. Not typical recessionista talk, but then Ralph Haslam cheeses are not typical either.

Ralph�s organic Mossfield cheese really is the cream of the crop. It has won numerous awards, including some of the highest ranking of awards possible.

At last year�s Great Taste awards in London, Ralph�s mature cheese was the highest placed Irish product, and made it to the last 18 out of almost 4000 products.

It also became something of a celebrity cheese, after a well reported mass order by Bruce Springsteen�s chef the last time the Boss was in town.

Along with the cheeses themselves, the farm has also been gathering up the garlands: Mossfield won the top price at the JFC Innovation awards last year.

The Mossfield range includes a young cheese, garlic and basil, tomato and herb and cumin seed, along with the iconic mature.

Things are going well enough for Ralph to open a new, purpose build 8000 square feet unit on the farm in fact.

This E1.5 million unit, complete with viewing area, was part grant aided by the Organic Unit of the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Food DAFF.

This unit, indeed the whole farm, will soon be powered by an anerobic digestor, which converts methane gas from slurry, farm yard manure and whey into power. Sustainable Energy Ireland has helped with the process, as has LEADER.

This brand new building will allow for an expansion of the current run of 2-300 kg per week.

�It could take up to 350kg per day, but we�ll keep production lower than that � we want to retain the hand made artisan approach. I�ll probably keep it down to under 600 kg per week� he tells me.

Ironically, this up scaling of production will also result in a lower carbon footprint from the product.

Before this new unit, the cheese had been made in Portumna (East Galway) and stored in Ferbane (West Offaly), all resulting in a round trip of 100 miles before it left for the shops. Now it can all be done on site, from making to maturing, on the 340 acre limestone farm in Offaly.

�The best thing about it really is that you can control everything yourself on the farm. You are not relying on anybody or anything else� according to a visibly pleased Ralph.

Ralph intends to branch out into other types of cheese, possibly a smoked or another herb line. He will also soon start with frozen yoghurts, buttermilk and ice creams. Again, all the milk will come from his herd of 140 Rotbunt-Freisen crosses, 80 of which are milking cows.

Although he supplied Glenisk at present, it is likely that all of the milk produced on the farm will go into their own products quite soon.

As often is the case, many family members are involved in the business, from the farm to production and the retail ends of the spectrum.

Son Andrew and wife Lorraine work on the farm and the cheese production respectively, while son Jonathan runs Birr�s well-known and very busy Organic Store.

Jonathan is fresh from BioFach, the annual organic food industry trade show in Germany, where he kept a close eye on the emerging trends and developments in the organic sector.

There is also a cheese maker employed, with more employees coming on line as the business expands.

Incredibly, not only is business going well for the smiling Offaly man, who sells to premium outlets across Ireland and in the UK, he is also exporting a small but growing amount as far away as California.

The association of Mossfield with the Ryder Cup and the Boss may have helped. So too must the quality.

Farming since 1970 and organic since 1999, Ralph has seen a lot of changes in Irish agriculture. Considering his own vintage, his move towards ever more control of his own destiny is all the more noteworthy.

Blessed are the cheesemakers: World Cheese Awards come to Ireland

(pictured: Jeffa Gill of Durrus cheese)

For the first time in its 20 year history, the World Cheese Awards will be held in Ireland. 2500 cheeses will enter, in 62 categories, some of which are further subdivided.

To celebrate the moment, here's a close up on three Irish cheeses, one organic, one raw and one goats...

Sometimes it can be hard to realise that you are in the middle of a vibrant, flourishing period in time. It can be hard to see, as the saying goes, the wood from the trees. But make no mistake, this is where we are, right now, in the world of Irish artisan cheese production.

Consider this: French culinary students now come to Ireland to learn how to make cheese. Irish artisan cheeses recently made the front cover of Saveur. Irish artisan cheeses seem to win more and more of the awards that count. And Irish artisan cheeses sell in all the right places all over the world � Neal�s Yard in London, Murray�s in New York and the closest farmers� market and deli to your house.

With recent announcements of additional milk quota for both conventional and organic dairy farmers, there is now an opportunity for some to consider joining the burgeoning band of Irish cheesemakers.

And with the World Cheese Awards leaving the UK for the first time in 20 years, and deciding upon Ireland, the spotlight will be on this island�s producers.

There are many exemplars of the craft out there, including raw, organic and goat�s milk cheeses. Perhaps the most iconic of Ireland�s raw milk cheeses is Jeffa Gill�s Durrus.

This is one of the cheeses the Slow Food movement has taken under it wing, as what are called presidia cheeses. Durrus, along with Drumlin, Desmond Raw, Cooleeney Raw, Mount Callan, Dilliskus, Bellingham Blue and St Gall make up the Slow Food presidia raw milk cheeses.

Jeffa Gill started producing cheese in 1979 on the far south west coast of Ireland, near the town of Durrus itself in west Cork. She still makes her deep-flavoured, coral-coloured, semi-soft, rind washed cheese on the farm.

Describing cheesemaking as �a lifetime commitment that�s 50% craft, 50% science� Jeff makes 26 tonnes of cheese a year. She uses the milk of local suppliers, including Corny Buckley. Jeffa suggest that �We�re still technically quite small, and have concentrated on the niche market. Our cheese is sold through delis primarily, and is distributed by good wholesale customers, such as Sheridans, Pallas, Horgans, Glenelly and the Traditional Cheese Company. We do also export to the UK through Neil�s Yard, and a tiny bit goes to the US�

A relative new kid on the artisan cheese block, but one whose stock is rising at a stratospheric rate, is Ralph Haslam�s organic Mossfield cheese. In an amazing short few years, Ralph has achieved the highest accolades and some significant sales and profile. His cheeses were watched by hundreds of millions as they surrounded the Ryder Cup in 2006; Bruce Springsteen�s cook bought all that Ecologic Dundrum, Dublin could get for him when the boss came here a few months back.

Mossfield wins awards, it seems, every few months. A gold medallist at the World Cheese Awards in 2005, recently, his outstanding mature Gouda also received three gold stars in the Great Taste Awards. It also was selected as best Irish Speciality Product, making it into the last 18 out of 4755 overall entrants. This made it the joint highest ranking cheese in the entire competition.

Mossfield mature Gouda is a very distinct cheese, which makes describing it an act of constant contradiction: it has sweetness, strength and gentleness; it is speckled with crystals and crumbly like a parmesan, but it is also creamy.

�I put it all down to what the cows are being fed - top quality Irish grass�, the reassuringly down to earth Offaly man claims. Farming since the early 1970s, I asked Ralph if the sward and indeed the farm differs in any way since converting to organic in 2001.

�Oh yea, certainly it does. It�s a different sward really, there is a lot more herbs and clovers in it. You�d also know by the wildlife, the different types of butterflies and birds. We can hear grasshoppers on the farm now. I remember hearing them from my youth, and now they seem to have returned�.

Ralph farms 350 acres near Birr in Offaly, including rented land. Amazingly, he has only been making his gouda style cheeses - plain, mature plain, basic and garlic, cumin seed and Mediterranean herb - since 2004. He produces 300 kg per week from a mixed herd of 85 Rotbunt and British Freisen cows. Ralph tells me that �Rotbunt was historically an old Irish moiled cow, originally from west Cork, which was brought to Germany by Irish monks�. �It�s a dual purpose breed, with high quality butterfat and protein � and its hardy� according to Haslam.

He will soon be moving the production unit on the farm itself, will be making ice creams and sorbets, and will get his biodigester fully operational.

Irish goat and sheep�s milk cheeses are flying the flag brilliantly too: take the Clare pair: Siobhan�s Garvey�s St. Tola�s and Sean Fitzgerald�s Cratloe Hills.

Along with these 21st Century arrivals, there are superlative stalwarts out there. A classic is Ardsallagh, make on a 35 acre farm in Carrigtwohill near Cork city.

Jane and Gerard Murphy carry 420 mixed breed goats. They carried Saanen initially, but have introduced Anglo-Nubian and Alpines for the high butterfat and protein content.

Jane�s background was as a food analyst for Marks and Spencers in London, and her husband was in IT. 30 years later, they are happy, contented goat�s cheesemakers in south west Ireland. �It all started when we lived in Carlow in 1978. A travelling life assurance salesman, back in the days when you could do that sort of thing, spotted that both kids my children had eczema. He said you have to give them goat�s milk. To get rid of him, I said that�s a good idea. He came back a short while later with a goat! He told me that she�s in kid, and to give the milk she produces to your children, and it will clear up the eczema. It did�

Previously �I would have only seen goats in the zoo�, she tells me. And now, they process 5-6000 litre of goat�s milk, from their own and another herd. 1/3 goes to milk 2/3 into cheese goes to cheese. When indoors, they get through up to five tonnes of feed each week, mostly hayledge, but also some cereal, and a special treat � local farmer John McGrath�s beet.

The delectable chesses are sold at markets, delis and in selected Dunnes and Tescos nationwide. From soft to coated to hard, they retain the sweetness of the beet they eat. This has helped Ardsallagh win Gold medals, as it did at the World Cheese Awards in 2005.

Will any of these win in their categories at the World Cheese Awards this time around? Undoubtedly they should. Either ways, for their both their commitment and their quality, its worth quoting Jesus � the Life of Brian version - blessed are the cheesemakers.

Interview with Bob Farrand, Guild of Fine Food:

�We chose Ireland because it was the logical country in which to site the first WCA outside the UK. Ireland is obviously handy from a language perspective, but it is also a great cheese making nation that sells a lot of cheese to the Brits.� So says Bob Farrand, National Director of the Guild of Fine Food, which organise the event.

These awards will be part of Bord Bia�s retail and trade event in the RDS � SHOP, which will be held at the end of this month in the RDS. Judging will be on the 29th, while the Cheeses of the awards will be showcased for the three days of the SHOP event.

Bob was very complementary of Bord Bia in their initiative: �And It has to be said that Bord Bia grabbed the opportunity with both hands � they have been enormously supportive�

According to Bob: �Winning in the WCA is the highest accolade in world cheese because the cheese maker is competing on a genuine world stage� Gold is an achievement that, when used properly, will drive sales for winning cheese in a quite remarkable fashion.�

He gives a few examples: �the winner in 1999 was a little known aged Dutch Gouda called Kolluma that had never previously been tasted outside its home country. After winning the Supreme Champion, it changed its name to Old Dutch Master and is now sold worldwide in massive quantities. The Ossau Iraty that took Supreme in 2006 is now exported to the States as well as the UK and the US.�

I asked Bob about the judging. �This year�s judges form a mix of professional graders from throughout Europe and beyond. We need experts on each cheese type � as well as key buyers from supermarkets, delis, food halls and other specialist stores, and finally knowledgeable food writers and chefs.�

Bob elaborated on the judging: �Judges are looking for perfect cheeses so each entry starts with a maximum 25 points - gold. Points are deducted based on faults identified. These faults are passed onto the producer as the awards are not just about acknowledging the best but helping the �not so good� to improve.

�At the first level of judging, it is not first past the post � if they find three perfect bries, they may award three golds. It is only when we move onto stages two and three of the judging that it becomes a competition, when we seek out the best cheddar, best Irish cheese or British, French and so on. Until we end up with the top dozen or so in the world from which we ultimately identify the World Champion.�

I asked Bob about the number of food award winners. I suggested that in the Olympics, if you get gold, you are the one and only winner, but in many food awards, gold as a category can seem misleading.

�Yes, we always take the criticism on the chin that there are too many food awards and too many Gold medals flying around�. However, he pointed out that there �are categories in the Olympics - 100m, high jump, beach volleyball and so on - just as we have classes in the WCA�.

This is true to an extent, but that�s like comparing all sports imaginable with�cheese. As opposed to �all foods�. Nonetheless, this is the big one for cheeses � the big cheese if you will � and the cheeses featured above are real contenders.

Great Taste Awards

Below is an article on Irish winners at the Great Taste Awards. Last night, it was announced that Mossfield cheese won best Irish speciality product: a great honour, one of the top 14 awards out of almost 4800.

See Thursday 18th's Examiner for an article of mine featuring Mossfield and other great Irish farmehouse cheeses.

(Pic accross: Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen, a 3 star winner at Great Taste)

They have been called the Oscars of food, and, perhaps this time of year the Olympics of food too. The Great Taste Awards in London feature the most critically acclaimed of foods and drinks.

4753 entered this year, up a couple of hundred from last year, but all a far cry from the 220 who entered when the competition started 15 years ago. This year, just over 1150 one star awards, for what the organisers call general excellence in taste, texture and flavour. So even to get that is an achievement. Better again are the two and three star categories: 220 received two stars, while just 72 got the highly prized three gold stars.

The Great Taste Awards are organised by the UK�s Guild of Fine Food. Every entry is blind tasted by at least three teams of experts. All of the judges� comments are made available to producers, to help with product improvements.

There are 36 classes of food and drink, but even within this, these classes are further sub divided into categories: so, for example, eight sub categories cover the products in the chutneys, pickles and marmalades section.

While it is primarily the UK�s speciality and artisan food sector that enters, Irish food companies seeking out UK markets, as well as what is considered to be a genuine, independent quality mark of recognition, often enter.

The awards can generate increased revenue through the branding the logo provides, as well as publicity the competition itself achieves:

Last year�s Supreme Champion winner was a free-range pork pie from Walter Smith�s butchers in Birmingham. Before Walter Smith�s won the Supreme Champion award, pork pies made up less than 1% of their sales but they now represent over 10% and their pies are now sold through Selfridges.

Some Irish products did especially well this year. In total, 141 products from Irish food companies won medals, with 14 winning three gold stars: these 14 products (see box) are entered into the supreme finals, the winner of which will be announced on the 8th September.

There are some exceptional areas of expertise, and some Michael Phelps-style hovering up of medals by particular companies.

Various sweets, pork products (especially bacon, hams, black puddings) cheese and tea/coffee seemed to score best for Ireland, displaying both the old and new in Irish food and drink business very well.

Companies like Java Republic, Bewleys, Lir Chocolates, Green Pastures (Cheese makers from Donegal) scooped multi awards.

Aptly enough, three of the five brown bread medal winners were Irish. While this might seem par for the course, there were no Irish winners in the brown bread category last year. This year, not only did Irish brown breads win most medals, the top two, receiving two gold stars each, were Irish.

�There was a tasting in Belfast this year� according to Pascal Gillard, one half of the two person Jinny�s bakery from Drumshanbo in Leitrim. �With a product so dependent on being consumed fresh, that probably helped a lot. Driving for a few hours to Belfast is far better than trying to fly scones to London� he continues.

Pascal and Sinead Gillard together run Jinny�s bakery. According to Sinead, "I made brown bread for our family business McGuire's Cottages. The reaction from our Irish and foreign visitors was always very positive. My best friend convinced me to try selling to local shops in Drumshanbo and that was the start of our bakery business. The response from local people was so positive that I decided to try another few shops."

From a micro business start, they now supply over 30 outlets in the counties of the north west. The couple make brown bread, including a sugar free version, carrot cake, scones and Christmas pudding.

According to Pascal, �We�re delighted with the 2 stars. There were very few 2 stars awarded to bakeries and only one other brown bread received this accolade. Our produce was tasted 24-48 hours after it was baked so we were very pleased to get the 2 stars.�

Another winning combination came from the En-Place and greatfood.ie partnership. Together they won three awards � their Wild Cranberry Apple and their Walnut & Fig Chutney won single stars, while their Hot Red Pepper Relish won two stars.

This combo does seem to be a match made in heaven. Monaghan�s En-Place specialise in reductions, herb oils, dressings, chutneys and savoury marmalades. Last year�s En-Place partnered with Castle Leslie to produce a balsamic reduction with sherry and fig which was awarded best Irish Speciality, and which indeed made it into the last three, out of 4500, for the supreme winner.

Greatfood.ie is an amazing food website success story. Anne Kennedy from greatfood told me �When I started Greatfood.ie, it was meant to be a small site offering information on Irish food and recipes. But I got so involved in it, I thought - why shouldn't I be more ambitious - and now just over two years later it's the largest food website in Ireland and is the food partner for Ireland.com.�

In fact, if you type food into google.ie, greatfood.ie is the first website that pops up.

Building upon the success of the site, there is now also a retail dimension (greatfood2buy.com) and a range of products, including the now award winning hot pepper relish.

�We're very proud that we're probably the first Irish media partnering an artisan producer, with an award-winning range of food!�

The site is going from strength to strength: �In the next month we'll be launching our cooking TV channel so readers can see us and our guests cooking in our new Mopalpa and Gorenja Test Kitchen.� Considering their humble beginnings, with as Anne put it, �no resources, just passion���these awards are an encouragement for us, for small producers and for anyone who is starting something new against the odds.�

Along with the one and two star winners, there was also an array of three star winners from Ireland.

Among these is Butler�s Pantry. Considered pioneers in the fresh, hand prepared, seasonal �food to go� end of the market, they began in Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, in 1987. From this one shop start, they now have eight stores in Dublin and Wicklow, with a turnover of e4.5 million, and 20% year on year growth.

All for their foods, including their 3 gold star lamb tagine, are cooked by their team of chefs in their own kitchens in Bray, under the guidance of Executive Chef Niall Hill.

Niall sources his lamb, indeed all of their meat, from master butcher Thomas Kinsella in Enniscorthy.

Traditionally lamb tagine is finished with preserved lemon. Niall uses fresh lemon, dried apricots along with his own blend of spices. This resulted in what the judges considered a faultless tagine.

Another three star winner was the Gubbeen ham. The Ferguson�s Gubbeen food business scooped four awards in total, with the ham receiving the top accolade.

The 250 acre farm �of rock and bog� according to Giana Ferguson, in west Cork, is itself a fantastically integrated, holistic enterprise. Tom and Giana take care of the cows and cheese, son Fingal the pigs, ham and bacon, and daughter Clovisse the herb garden.

In a way, every product and person on the farm contributed to the 3 stars. The pigs behind the 3 star ham are fed the whey, which is a by product of the on-farm cheese making � and the cheese is made from their own cow�s milk. Herbs from the garden are used in the smokehouse and in the brines.

Fingal Ferguson goes to a lot of trouble to get the ham just right. Fingal�s trainings in France shines through in the brine his ham spends a week in. This brine, a delicate adaptation of a recipe from charcutier Jane Grigson, includes a whole bottle of white wine, a bouquet Garnis (rosemary, thyme and bay) as well as pepper and juniper.

More and more products are coming on line: with great foresight, resourcefulness and ingenuity, their fine meat products - burger, sausage, salami, pepperoni, pepperami and chistorra - keep being expanding upon. The pepperami has even been known to end up in some west Cork school lunchboxes these days.

Fingal uses his trips to regional farmers� markets (Scull, Skibbereen, Kinsale and Bantry) to also deliver to delis. His saddleback, tamworth and duboc animals get not only great whey, but some excellent leftovers from regional food businesses Fingal deals with, including top drawer olives and pesto from the likes of the Real Olive Company. Lucky swines!

The south west also earned a three star rating for one of Hodgins sausages� black puddings. This new black pudding has been developed from a gluten free pudding the Mitchelstown company also carry. �We developed the recipe in conjunction with Spice O' Life in Dunmanway. Our pork comes from Dawn Pork and Bacon in Waterford fresh every morning� according to Collette Lambe of the company.

The performance of Irish food and drink companies augers well for the Irish quality food scene. There are definite areas of expertise emerging, and some incredibly dedicated food producers flying the flag for this island nation.

Irish 3 star winners:

�ine�s Chocolates Caramel Fudge Sauce
Gubbeen Farmhouse Products Ltd Ham, unsmoked
Clonakilty Black Pudding Company Oak Smoked Rasher
Curraghchase Free Range Pork Free-range (Rare breed) Streaky Bacon
En-Place Foods Balsamic & Apple Reduction
Mossfield Organic Farm Organic Mature Gouda-style Cheese, 9 months+
Oliver Carty Organic Loin of Bacon
Avoca Lemon Curd, Mushroom Soup
The Butler's Pantry Lamb Tagine
Java Republic Ltd FS Blue Earth Organic Fairtrade, Bluebird and Houseblend Espressos
Hodgins Sausages Mitchelstown Foods Black Pudding